APWH CH 12 - Americas on the Eve of Invasion

Toltec culture

succeeded Teotihuacan culture in central Mexico; strong militaristic ethic including human sacrifice; influenced large territory after 1000 C.E.; declined after 1200 C.E.

Quetzalcoatl

Toltec deity; feathered serpent; adopted by Aztecs as a major god.

Tenochtitlan

founded circa 1325 on a marshy island in Lake Texcoco; became center of Aztec power.

Tlaloc

major god of Aztecs; associated with fertility and the agricultural cycle; god of rain.

Huitcilopochtli

Aztec tribal patron god; central figure of human sacrifice and warfare; identified with old sun god.

Nezhualcoyotl

leading Aztec king of the 15th century.

chinampas

beds of aquatic weeds, mud, and earth placed in frames made of cane and rooted in lakes to create “floating islands”; system of irrigated agriculture used by Aztecs.

pochteca

merchant class in Aztec society; specialized in longdistance trade in luxury items.

calpulli

clans in Aztec society; evolved into residential groupings that distributed land and provided labor and warriors.

Pachacuti

Inca ruler (1438–1471); began the military campaigns that marked the creation of an Inca empire.

ayllus

households in Andean societies that recognized some form of kinship; traced descent from a common, sometimes mythical ancestor.

split inheritance

Inca practice of ruler descent; all titles and political power went to successor, but wealth and land remained in hands of male descendants for support of dead Inca’s mummy.

Temple of the Sun

Inca religious center at Cuzco; center of state religion; held mummies of past Incas.

mita

labor extracted for lands assigned to the state and the religion; all communities were expected to contribute; an essential aspect of Inca imperial control.

yanas

a class of people within Inca society removed from their ayllus to serve permanently as servants, artisans, or workers for the Inca or the Inca nobility.

quipu

system of knotted strings utilized by the Incas in place of a writing system; could contain numerical and other types of information for censuses and financial records.